Tourists in New York can take in the sights on bikes

By Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times News Service :
June 6, 2013
: Updated: June 6, 2013 5:32pm

Citi Bikes are docked at one of the 600 docking stations in New York. The bike-share program recently opened to tourists.

A sign on the handlebars warns of stiff penalties if bike is not returned.

NEW YORK — They snap photographs of the mundane — before, after, and, occasionally, during their rides. They pedal past in clothes, recently purchased, that bear the words “New York.” They ask for directions.

“Where is the Empire State Building?” a woman wondered Sunday morning, approaching a bike-sharing station at Herald Square. She was told to turn her head to the right and look up.

Less than one week after New York City's bike share made its debut for annual members, the program has entered a new phase: As of June 2, riders were able to buy daily or weekly passes, opening the system en masse to tourists for the first time.

For both proponents and critics of the system, the wide-scale opening presents a crucial early test. Will the city's visitors, and local riders who have not purchased yearly passes, flock to the bikes as officials have predicted? And if they do, will the streets teem with perilously inexperienced riders, ill-suited to negotiate Manhattan's streets?

Already, some trends seem to have emerged. The city has compiled figures on some of the most popular stations, which include one at West 31st Street and Eighth Avenue and a handful near Union Square. Users also appear to have adopted parts of the unspoken bike share language from other cities: If a bike is not working properly, some riders have taken to turning the seat around as a signal.

And in a fit of urban guile more likely to affect gym memberships than program memberships, some New Yorkers seem to have identified the newest, cheapest way to tone their lower bodies: hop aboard the seat and pedal in place — with the bikes still locked — as if the stations were rows of exercise equipment.

The first week of bike sharing also delivered some hiccups: the first crash, after a rider was struck by a car near Macdougal and Houston streets, though an official said the rider's injuries were not thought to be serious; the first theft, when a bike was swiped during last-minute station loading before opening day; an apparent act of vandalism that damaged a kiosk on Rivington Street, temporarily shutting it down; and a series of technical glitches.

Renting a bike at 24th Street and Broadway, Mauren Motta, 42, from Brazil, said she planned her trip around the bike share's arrival. “New York must be in the first world, like in Europe,” she said. “On subways, you cannot see anything of the city.”

But as she and her travel mate, Samanta Pinto, 40, prepared to ride south on Broadway, Motta wobbled severely, lurching toward a curb. She stepped off, steadying herself.

“Now,” she announced, “we are going to Brooklyn.”

She planned to take the Brooklyn Bridge, she said. She did not expect the crossing's crowds to affect her riding.

Some New Yorkers have also been given to sightseeing. Joe Spitaleri, 25, from Astoria, Queens, said he had planned to go to a yoga class, but exhausted himself riding from Midtown to Union Square on a $9.95 daily pass, absorbing the scenes of the East Side. He said he would consider buying a yearly pass for $95, even though stations have not yet reached Queens.

“I don't really care about how long it takes to get places,” he said, adding, “I'm a Floridian originally.”

Nearby, on the north end of Union Square, city officials gathered to inaugurate the program's full rollout, convening a celebration that included a helmet giveaway, an obstacle course with simulated traffic conditions, and the Mr. Met mascot at one point. Despite the occasional glitch, Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's transportation commissioner, said the week had been “a magic moment” after years of planning, as the blue Citi Bikes, as they are known, became instantly ubiquitous in the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn that include stations.

She likened the system to “having a new puppy” — owners feel protective and strangers often stop to ask questions.

“I can't tell you how many cabbies smile and give you a thumbs up,” she said in an interview. “There's not too many projects we've done at the Department of Transportation that make cabbies give you a thumbs up.”